Israeli Settlers Shelter Gay Palestinian

An Orthodox Jewish family shelters a gay Palestinian.

Here’s a wild story, courtesy of YNet. T is a gay Palestinian who for the past 10 years has been living in Israel with his partner, an Israeli Jew named Doron. A few days ago, he heard that his father was ill, and he ventured across the border into the West Bank to visit him. When he tried to return, however, the IDF told him his permit had been lost, maybe revoked. T was stuck: he couldn’t go back home to Israel, and he couldn’t return to his village, for fear of being murdered because he is openly gay.

T was offered shelter by an Orthodox Jewish family, living in one of the settlements in the West Bank. Thanks to a generous, humanitarian gesture by one of those evil, nasty, gun-toting, messiah-heralding, baby-producing, Bible-thumping settlers, T has hope and room to breathe.

You have to wonder what organizations like Queers for Palestine hope to accomplish. Of course the gay community is not monolithic on the subject.

What makes QUIT and their slogan “Queers for Palestine” such foolish rhetoric is that these gay people's affinity for Palestine is clearly unrequited. If these “queers” want to march around with their delusional banners for Palestine then they are free to make that irrational mistake. But do they think Palestine is for them? Queers for Palestine = laughable. Palestine for queers = horrendous torture and death.

Anti-gay bigotry in America, despicable though it is, is very mild by comparison. The difficulty is, that over time such bigotry can morph into something worse. Much worse. "Undesirables" didn't suddenly find themselves in German death camps over night. First the ground was prepared. The hate was intensified. And then the trains started rolling.

Although many gays across the world are not members of these organizations, they basically share their views. I have met hundreds of them, whether I am home in New York or abroad in Europe. This is the frightening part -- some gay people hate Jews to the point that they are ready to unite with people who are killing their own kind to fight and protest what they consider a common enemy. They would make a pact with their own enemy, with their own murderers, against the Jewish state.

This is what “Queers for Palestine” is for. In response, the homosexual and Jewish communities should unite against Islam; for it is the Muslims who seek the death of all gays and Jews.

I take a look at the progression from hate to mass murder in a piece on the drug war called How To Put An End To Drug Users. Or if you prefer a book:

Drug Warriors and Their Prey: From Police Power to Police State

You start with hate and wind up with crimes against humanity. So does this mean I favor hate crime laws? Hell No. What I ask is that people look into their hearts.

H/T Judith Weiss on Facebook

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Your Typical Palestinian Wants War

Eric of Classical Values posted a bit entitled Your typical Jew wants war? in which he discusses Obama's statement:

There are Israelis who recognize that it is important to achieve peace.

The best answer to that is something I read yesterday by Professor Barry Rubin. I'm posting it in its entirety because it explains the Palestinian politics behind the recent Israeli punitive expedition in Gaza.

==

FATAH VS HAMAS: BE MY BROTHER OR I'LL KILL YOU

By Barry Rubin

There was an election on Hamas's mind when it cancelled the ceasefire with Israel, leading to the Gaza war. But it wasn't the February Israeli election but rather the January Palestinian non-election.

Four years ago, Mahmoud Abbas was elected leader of the Palestinian Authority (PA) for a two-year term. Two years ago, Hamas won a majority in the Palestinian parliamentary election. Hamas then made a coalition agreement with its rival Fatah, which previously controlled the PA. Shortly thereafter, Hamas staged a bloody coup and threw Fatah out of the Gaza Strip. But Fatah, and Abbas, still controls the internationally recognized PA and the West Bank.

While Hamas and Israel went to war, Israel and the PA remained at peace. The war had nothing to do with Israel-Palestinian relations as such but as a response to Hamas's extremism, rejecting not only any comprehensive peace agreement with Israel but even a real truce. How, then, does this triangular relationship figure in Palestinian politics?

Analysts have generally ignored the proximity of Hamas's decision for war to its impending January 2009 showdown with Abbas, Fatah, and the PA. It was widely predicted that Abbas was going to announce that, given the impossibility of holding new elections, he would simply extend his term for another year.

The event was expected to mark a major widening of the rift between the two groups. Hamas, it was thought, would declare Abbas a usurper, name its own candidate for "president," and the establishment of two rival Palestinian governments would be complete.

Even before that date, the PA had apparently enjoyed some real success--with Israeli help--in reducing Hamas's organization on the West Bank, ensuring any takeover bid there would be impossible, and making progress toward restoring order and even improving the economy.

Hamas no doubt saw choosing war as a way of upstaging Abbas, showing that it was the real fighter for Palestinian rights (principally the right to wipe Israel off the map), and even attracting support from some Fatah men who concluded that Hamas was macho and their own organization was too meek. In effect, it was a reiteration of traditional Palestinian politics in which those who take the most extreme action, evidence the greatest intransigence, and kill the most Israelis prove their credentials for leadership.

In practice, though, Hamas played into Abbas's hands. Now he has the perfect rationale to insist that elections cannot be held--which is, of course quite true--and he must remain as leader for the indefinite future.

Despite this, the relationship between Hamas and Fatah remain quite complex. It seems bizarre that Hamas set off a civil war, murdered Fatah men in cold blood, and kicked the group out of Gaza yet still most of Fatah is ready to forgive it. There is a strong likelihood that if given the choice, Fatah leaders--though not necessarily Abbas himself--would prefer conciliation with Hamas, which would make any peace with Israel impossible--to making a diplomatic deal with Israel and getting a Palestinian state.

From Israel's standpoint, of course, how can it negotiate any comprehensive solution with the PA when it cannot deliver half of the territory, people, and armed men who are supposed to be bound by such an agreement? Moreover, the possibility that either Hamas will overthrow Fatah at some future point or even that the two will join together in a new war against Israel rather puts a damper on Israeli willingness to make concessions.

The paradox of a simultaneous blood feud and brotherly love relationship between the two Palestinian organizations is explained by the supposed sanctity of being fellow Arabs, Muslims, and Palestinians, coupled with a deep and abiding loathing of Israel.

Yet this also coexists with such deep Fatah anger at Hamas that interviewed Fatah cadre told reporters that they were glad Israel was trouncing Hamas in Gaza Strip. The solution of this paradox was for the official PA line to be: it's all Hamas's fault but there should be an immediate ceasefire and Israel is behaving in a beastly way.

This approach is strengthened by the fact that most Arab states and a surprising amount of the media (albeit in many cases the two are identical) are taking a similar line. Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the smaller Gulf states and more--pretty much all the leaders except for Syria--hate Hamas. They see it as an agent of Iran, meaning a friend of their Islamist opponents.

If Fatah were more adept politically, it could benefit from this situation. A clever and active policy would combine an energetic campaign to unite the Arab states behind the PA, while persuading the UN and West that they should ensure its restoration to power in the Gaza Strip as the "legitimate government." The Fatah underground in the Gaza Strip would be reinforced and figure out some way (even with a little secret coordination with Israel) to oust Hamas and seize power at least in sections of the territory.

Yet both the PA and Fatah lack the will power and political skill to take advantage of such a promising situation. They are sitting back and hoping that someone--though not Israel--will give them back the Gaza Strip on a silver platter. The problem also includes their lack of charismatic leadership and failure to deal seriously with the problems that led them to being kicked out by the election: corruption, incompetence, and the failure to articulate a moderate vision of achievable peace with Israel.

No outside power, including Israel, and no amount of money can make up for the shortcomings of the PA and Fatah. Thus, it is much easier for Hamas to lose the war than for the nationalist forces to win.

Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal. His books include:

Revolution Until Victory?: The Politics and History of the PLO,

Yasir Arafat: A Political Biography.

The Israel-Arab Reader: A Documentary History of the Middle East Conflict

The Tragedy of the Middle East

The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Hamas Wants More War

Mr. Obama the great peace maker whose policy in the Middle East is peace, peace, and more peace, because there is nothing like a peaceful peace to make you feel at peace said:

"It will be the policy of my administration to actively and aggressively seek a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians, as well as between Israel and its Arab neighbors," he said.

Lovely sentiment. However it appears he is going to have a spot of bother with some of the peace loving people of the Middle East. Like the fellows who control Gaza, Hamas. One of them, Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan, had some words about peace.

He maintained that the Israeli-Palestinian peace process had ended.

I wonder if that means that Hamas is temporarily out of rockets?

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Perhaps They Miscalculated

There is an excellent discussion of the dust up in the Republic of Georgia going on at The Belmont Club. There is lots of news about an impending Naval Blockade of Iran.

Operation Brimstone ended only one week ago. This was the joint US/UK/French naval war games in the Atlantic Ocean preparing for a naval blockade of Iran and the likely resulting war in the Persian Gulf area. The massive war games included a US Navy supercarrier battle group, an US Navy expeditionary carrier battle group, a Royal Navy carrier battle group, a French nuclear hunter-killer submarine plus a large number of US Navy cruisers, destroyers and frigates playing the "enemy force".

The lead American ship in these war games, the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN71) and its Carrier Strike Group Two (CCSG-2) are now headed towards Iran along with the USS Ronald Reagon (CVN76) and its Carrier Strike Group Seven (CCSG-7) coming from Japan.

They are joining two existing USN battle groups in the Gulf area: the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN72) with its Carrier Strike Group Nine (CCSG-9); and the USS Peleliu (LHA-5) with its expeditionary strike group.

Likely also under way towards the Persian Gulf is the USS Iwo Jima (LHD-7) and its expeditionary strike group, the UK Royal Navy HMS Ark Royal (R07) carrier battle group, assorted French naval assets including the nuclear hunter-killer submarine Amethyste and French Naval Rafale fighter jets on-board the USS Theodore Roosevelt. These ships took part in the just completed Operation Brimstone.

That is very interesting. Very interesting indeed. A joint American and European task force including France? What is the world coming to? No good for the Iranians to be sure.

So a commenter at the Belmont Club on the Georgia thread pops up and asks if the excitement in Georgia will have an effect on the coming Iran operation?

Will it frustrate planned action on Iran? Yes.

Well I'm not going to give a set up like that a pass (I blog after all). So here is my response:

No. Russia is now tied down. Their freedom to act has just been reduced. You know: hold ‘em by the nose and then kick them in the ass.

The Russians now have what? 30K - 40K troops tied down and their attention concentrated at the cost of 1,000 Americans in the field + a few hundred advisers. Plus there are Israeli advisers in Georgia as well.

Americans are taking no casualties and the Russians seem to be bloodied.

The time for a counter strike at Russia’s wind pipe (the Roki Tunnel) is when they have fully extended. To make such a strike before that reduces the effect. As a commenter at the Belmont Club link said they have learned nothing from 1908. Evidently we have.

We will see how stupid the Russians are in the next few days. If they keep advancing while taking losses - i.e. they are goaded into ill considered action - they become more vulnerable every day. If they retreat they lose face. The Georgians need to keep retreating while fighting delaying actions to maintain limited contact and then cut off the Russian wind pipe. In the immortal words of Groucho Marx - stucco.

It is reported that Putin’s face turned to ash at the Olympics. Perhaps things got out of hand before he was ready to act. We have disrupted Putin’s timing. i.e. a spoiling attack.

In re: American politics. This is not going to help Obama with the muddled middle. Americans turn to warriors in dangerous times, not community organizers.

So what have the Russians decided to do?

The President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev issued an order Tuesday for the termination of the military operation of the Russian Army in Georgia.

Medvedev announced his decision during a meeting with the Defense Minister Anatoliy Serdyukov and the Head of the General Staff of the Army Nikolay Makarov, Interfax reported.

The operation for "coercing the Georgian side into making peace" was ended after a report of the Defense Ministry made it clear the goals of Russia's military operation was achieved.

If that report is true (and it is very likely true because it has come from a Russian news agency) the Russians know that they are in a very dangerous position militarily and may be beating feet to save their army.

However, they miscalculated by not announcing in advance “limited objectives”. Now it will look like they have been defeated by a fifth rate power with American friends. Bad for morale. Bad for their world image. Having Putin at the Olympics at the start when the generals would be in control with orders to do nothing except to respond to attacks was a master stroke not an error.

Proving once again that Bush plays the game better than any one else currently on the world stage.

Note: no reported American deaths so far. It looks like the Russians got their noses bloodied and America barely lifted a finger. My guess is that Russia was saving its move into Georgia for the start of the planned blockade of Iran. That is not going to work is it?

The initiative in world affairs has shifted.

What can we expect next once the blockade starts? Hizballah will probably attack Israel. However, this time it will come as no surprise to the Israels and my guess is that this time they will not only take out Hizballah but also Syria as well. The Stupistinians in Gaza will also likely get their just deserts. Provided they heed their paymasters in Iran.

It will be a whole new world come 20 Jan. 2009. A lot of unfinished business will have been finished. Self government is on the move. It will not be denied.

And American politics? That poor Obama doesn't stand a chance.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Darkness at the Break of Noon

It seems like the Palestinians are having lighting problems during the day since the Israelis stopped delivering fuel to them. Solomonia has the story and pictures. Quoting from Khaled Abu Toameh:

On at least two occasions this week, Hamas staged scenes of darkness as part of its campaign to end the political and economic sanctions against the Gaza Strip, Palestinian journalists said Wednesday.

In the first case, journalists who were invited to cover the Hamas government meeting were surprised to see Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and his ministers sitting around a table with burning candles.

In the second case on Tuesday, journalists noticed that Hamas legislators who were meeting in Gaza City also sat in front of burning candles.

But some of the journalists noticed that there was actually no need for the candles because both meetings were being held in daylight.

If they went around blindfolded they would be no worse off, they could save a lot on curtains, and it would give a truer picture of the situation.

H/T Instapundit

It's Unanimous - They Don't Deserve A State

Steven Erlanger of the International Herald Tribune is doing a review of current conditions in Hamastan and Fatahland. He finds that the youth feel inadequate.

During the first intifada the young were a symbol of the struggle for statehood, leaders of a popular uprising that focused, at least at first, on resistance over violence. But in the brutal struggle of the second intifada, which has been taken over by the militias, many of them controlled from leaders outside Palestine, "now the youth are irrelevant," said Nader Said, a political scientist at Birzeit University in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

More importantly, this generation has lost faith in political solutions. "They haven't lived one moment in a period of real hope for a real state," he said. "And with this internal fighting, there is more and more a feeling that we don't deserve a state, that we're inadequate, which kills the morale of the young."

Low morale is a major sign that a war is lost. So what is the Palestinian reaction? Surrender and ask for terms. Nope.

Some 58 percent of those under 30, the center's polls show, expect a more violent struggle with Israel over the next five to 10 years, and only 22 percent believe that there will be a peaceful negotiated solution between Israel and the Palestinians. Some 48 percent believe such an agreement is impossible, and 20 percent more believe it will only come "in a few generations."

These people are true masochists. You ask a masochist why he beats his head against the wall? The answer is "It feels so good when I stop." That is not the Palestinian way. Their answer is, "Because it feels so good when I beat my head against the wall." There is a real future for people like that. I just don't know where it is.

Here is an interesting view form an Al Aksa militia leader.

Zakariya Zubeidi grew up imbued with what he sees as the heroism of the first intifada, built on hope and the conviction that sacrifice was bringing a state and a better future. Now he runs the Al Aksa Brigades in the tough town of Jenin and is wanted by Israel for carrying out attacks against Israelis.

"It was always our choice to be fuel for the struggle," he said. "But our problem now is that the car burns the youth as fuel but doesn't move. There's a problem in the engine, in the head. These kids are willing to be fuel, but many have been burned as waste."

Zubeidi was a hero of the first intifada. "When I was younger I thought, if I die, that's natural, it's for a cause," he said. "And today I think differently. To die? For what? For these people who can't agree? That's what this generation fears. It's lost, and its sacrifices are meaningless. Is the Palestinian dream dying? In these circumstances, yes."

When a culture sees its own children as waste it is in deep trouble. Deep trouble.

Some of the parents see it. It bothers them.

For the Eid festival, the boys asked for toy Kalashnikovs and Uzis. "They classify the weapons, they want a particular gun. And when you think of the violence, and what future will we have here? It will be a very violent future."

Taher broke in. "The world is moving ahead and we're moving backward," he said. "We're back to 1948."

Najwa said softly: "I feel there is no way I can protect them or hide them. Normally people are happy with a new baby, but when I delivered Salma I thought, 'Oh my God, a third child in this life.' It haunts me - I think, 'What if? What if? What if a rocket hits the house? What if the Israelis have another "accident"? What if Mustafa is 19 and attracted to a group of militants and I don't know, and I hear on TV that this person went to Israel and exploded himself?' You live with this, 'What if?' But there's no inner peace, you get so nervous you want to scream!"

Taher said: "But we can't give them security and safety. They can't live as normal children. When a kid realizes a parent can't supply security and safety, what is the point of these parents?"

Sad story. Very sad. The Palestinians asked for war. They got one. It turns out they really didn't want war. Only its fruits. Now they are stuck with the war and whatever fruits it delivers are bitter in the extreme and yet they see no way out. They are stuck with their heart's desire.

Raed, 30, was arrested in the first intifada, when he was 16. He felt a hero, then, but the political result, the 1993 Oslo accords, "were useless and benefited Israel," he said. "No one can resist with stones or build a nation without violence."

Nations can only be built by violence. How limited is his imagination. Suppose the violence doesn't work? Then what?

Like his comrades, he says he is fighting for the future of his own children, but he has small hopes for them, and large fears. "Hamas and Fatah are so divided, the goal of Palestine disappears," he said. "I talk about willing my children to be martyrs for Allah, but I honestly wish for them to be safe and healthy, that's all."

The culture of martyrdom. Yet he can't figure out where he and his cohorts went wrong.

If they see violence as the only way to reach their goals and violence fails what have they got left? Violence. Or just quitting the place. Here is what one young Palestinian with a computer science degree has to say:

Hussein says he has never spoken to a normal Israeli. "The only Israelis I see here are either settlers or soldiers," he said. "They all have guns."

He hates waiting on people and washing dishes, and says he is still looking for a decent job. But he's also looking to get out of Palestine to the United States, if possible, where his sister lives, but "almost any place," he said, "where I can work and live a normal life." He's a Palestinian patriot, he insists. "But there's no hope here," he said. "You see the situation. It's useless to think it will improve. You see it, it just gets worse."

Which reminds me of the oft quoted remarks of WW2 German General Runstedt when asked what the Germans should do in the closing days of WW2, He replied, "Make peace you fools".

Arafat Honored In The Usual Way

Honoring Arafat:

What was supposed to be a gathering to remember Yasser Arafat turned bloody...

6 are dead after Hamas opened fire on the massive Fatah gathering.

H/T Gateway Pundit who has pictures and more.

How Is Failure Different From Success?

Meryl Yourish has a bit up on the upcoming Mideast Summit.

American efforts to bridge the gaps between Israel and the Palestinians to culminate in a summit at the end of November are being met by skepticism in the Arab and Muslim worlds according to Jeffrey Fleishman of the LA Times.

Of course the Arabs are sceptical. The Arabs will always be sceptical until Israel ceases to exist. As Meryl put it so cleverly:

The article emphasizes the Arab weakness and parrots the line that the failure of the summit would only “embolden the extremists.” (It seems that every “successful” Israeli peace effort - such as withdrawing from Lebanon or from Gaza, or allowing Fatah into Gaza and Jericho - has “emboldened the extremists” too, so how failure would differ from success is unclear.)

You go girl.

Hamas Has To Be Engaged

Colin Powell says Hamas must be engaged.

I say no to engagement. We should go straight to the shotgun wedding. Two blasts and then last rites. Til death do us part.

What part of active diplomacy doesn't Powell understand?

Criminals Arrested

Criminals? What criminals? Fatah criminals.

Hamas security forces detained at least 30 members of a large Fatah clan in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, in what the movement said was a raid targeting criminals but the family said was politically motivated.

According to Reuters, witnesses said Hamas forces made the arrests after entering a group of houses in Gaza City belonging to the Fatah-affiliated Abu Amra clan. Hamas security officers said the raid was aimed at confiscating weapons and drugs.

Sounds like Compton.

In this case I think the police want a the drug trade all to themselves. Say, it might not be too different from Compton after all.

How Many States?

In physics the state of a system can be (generally) determined by the number of objects in a system and the possible states of the various objects. A state could include the velocity of the objects, their direction and speed of rotation etc. When we get lots of particles we have numbers that are state averages, things like temperature and entropy.

Which brings us to humans. Very complex indeed. Lots of possible states. When humans are relatively uncoupled - individuals acting on their own interest - you have a lot of states but the available states are fairly continuous. When you have strongly coupled individuals - tribal societies - the state space consists of a number of preferred states.

David Warren expands on this from the dimension of politics and diplomacy.

The Israeli and Western diplomatic approach to the conquest of Gaza by the psychopaths of Hamas, has been to caress and pile aid upon Mahmoud Abbas and the psychopaths of Fatah. Since the obvious objection to this shouldn’t have to be explained -- never give weapons to psychopaths, nor food unless you have them securely in custody -- let me deal with the more subtle, tactical end in view.

So far as it could have any merit at all, the idea appears to be “divide and conquer.” The reasoning goes: this is the moment to embrace Fatah, against the outwardly more radical party the Palestinians actually voted into office, to have a “peace partner” who is scared enough by what Hamas has just achieved in Gaza, to welcome our embrace. Moreover, those “moderate” Arab “states,” starting with Egypt and Saudi Arabia, are themselves aware that Hamas is, like Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, now beholden to Iran, and that revolutionary Iran is quickly becoming a bigger worry for them than Israel could ever be. Surely, under these circumstances, hay can be made. Let’s everybody who is frightened by Iran (and with cause) come to an arrangement that will subvert the ayatollahs.

It is one of those ideas, too clever by at least half, that has never worked in the Middle East, where all alliances are temporary, and no enemies are ever forgotten. The very concept of “national interest” does not exist among the Arabs. (I know that sounds strong, but it’s true.) This is not only because pan-Arabism and pan-Islamism have successively kept an alternative to the nation state alive, but because from the origin of modern Arab statehood, almost every Arab state has been almost constantly governed by a family clique. The Arab states remain today essentially dynastic, as well as essentially tyrannical. The interests being served are thus the interests of the clans -- whether Sauds, Assads, Hashemites, Mubaraks, or the others. In each case, the nation is perpetuated only as a kind of monstrous family business, and organized on the principles of the Mob.

We nevertheless persist, in the West, in thinking that we are dealing with states. Israel is a state, and we can certainly deal with it; the Americans are attempting to create proper states in Iraq and Afghanistan. But the difficulties we are encountering in the latter cases are such as we would encounter anywhere in the region.

Because the states are discontinuous the transition from one state to another is chaotic. A move from one point of stability to another is not a small increment on the curve when the change gets large enough. It means a transition to what chaos theory guys call a different strange attractor or in layman's terms a different quasi-stable state.

To make the nation state version of politics work people have to have a concept of the common good. The common good should take precedence over your brother in law.

This is a hugely disruptive change and it doesn't work totally. A look at Chicago politics will convince you of that. Still, it is the ideal. Which to some extent limits the number of hands in the cookie jar.

One of the first steps in breaking down the tribal mentality is to get honest courts so that grievances are settled by judgments enforced by the state rather than tribal blood feuds. This starts the breakdown of allegiance to the tribe. Another thing that helps is the creation of a national economy. To make that work we go back to the need for honest courts.

Looting Gaza

Latest news from Gaza is that Yasser Arafat's house has been looted.

A crowd has looted the home of longtime Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, destroying one of the strongest symbols of the Fatah movement in the Gaza Strip.

Fatah officials said the crowd took furniture, wall tiles and Arafat's personal belongings.

The villa had been empty since Arafat left for the West Bank in 2001 shortly after the outbreak of the second Palestinian uprising. Israel confined Arafat to the West Bank until permitting him to fly to France for medical care in late 2004. Arafat died in France several weeks later.

Fair is fair. Yasser looted the Palestinians of several billion dollars. In any case I don't think he will be needing the house any time soon.

So what is next for Gaza in particular and the Middle East in general? Ralph Peters has some interesting thoughts.

WONDER what Iraq would look like if we left to morrow? Take a look at Gaza today. Then imagine a situation a thousand times worse.

We need to stop making politically correct excuses. Arab civilization is in collapse. Extremes dominate, either through dictatorship or anarchy. Thanks to their dysfunctional values and antique social structures, Arab states can't govern themselves decently.

We gave them a chance in Iraq. Israel "gave back" the Gaza Strip to let the Palestinians build a model state. Arabs seized those opportunities to butcher each other.

The barbarity in Gaza has become so grotesque that not even the media's apologists for terror can ignore it (especially since Islamist fanatics began to target journalists).

Over the weekend, Hamas gangbangers-for-Allah grabbed a Fatah functionary and dropped him from the roof of a high-rise to check out the law of gravity (the only law that still obtains in Gaza). Tit-for-tat, Fatah gunmen grabbed a Hamas capo and gave him the same treatment.

Thereafter, cooler heads prevailed and both sides returned to their everyday routines of kidnapping, torturing and assassinating each other's leaders, gunning down teachers and doctors and, of course, murdering women, children and stray pedestrians.

Such charming people. Perhaps if they only had a state of their own it would civilize them. Or not.

So what does all this mean for Iraq?

We're stuck in Iraq, and it sucks. But were we to leave in haste, far more blood than oil would flow in the Persian Gulf. The disaster in Gaza's just a rehearsal for the Arab-suicide drama awaiting its opening night in Iraq.

What we need is some kind of soft landing program for the Middle East. The trouble is that they seem to prefer hard landings. The Israelis keep whipping the Arabs and yet they want to come around for another pass.

In fact, if you believe the news, Hizballah and Boy Assad seem poised to start up last years unfinished war with Israel. Obviously with the hope of taking all of Lebanon this time.

H/T Instapundit

Palestinian Lesbians Safe In Israel

It is not safe to be a lesbian in Palestine.

Many of the attendees said they were sad that the only place safe enough to hold a conference for gay Arab women was in a Jewish area of Haifa, which has a mixed Arab-Jewish population.

How is that for irony?

I got the link from Carl in Jerusalem who asks this question:

Can someone please explain why the queers are for 'Palestine'?

Cross Posted at Classical Values and at The Astute Bloggers

Some Video Posts About History

I have a couple of video posts up at Classical Values.

One is a history of the start of the Israel-Palestine conflict in two and a quarter minutes.

The other is a history of Hackers with some text from me about my involvement in hacking. About an hour long.

Inherited Rights

Palestinians are claiming the "right of return" is an inherited right.

The right of return “is my right, which I have inherited from my parents and grandparents,” said Maha Bseis, 39, a Palestinian whose family comes from Jerusalem. “But if I have the right, I will not return because I was born and grew up here.”

There is no such thing as an inherited right along the lines the Palestinians claim.

In any case the whole idea is bogus. When 5 Arab Armies attacked Israel in 1948 the Israelis asked the Arabs living in Israel to stay. The attacking Arab Armies asked the Israeli Arabs to leave to make fighting easier. Those that stayed are Israeli citizens. Those that left are not. I think that is a pretty good resolution of the problem. No residency, no rights.

Other wise the Sudenten Germans will be asking for return and recompense. Or the Jews driven out of Arab countries for that matter.

H/T Israpundit

Cross Posted at The Astute Bloggers

Meaningless Sacrifice

The New York Times has an excellent report on the dead end of the Palestinian fight to destroy Israel. Even victories like expelling all Israelis from Gaza look like defeats.

“It was always our choice to be fuel for the struggle,” he said. “But our problem now is that the car burns the youth as fuel but doesn’t move. There’s a problem in the engine, in the head. These kids are willing to be fuel, but many have been burned as waste.”

Mr. Zubeidi was a hero of the first intifada. “When I was younger I thought, ‘if I die, that’s natural, it’s for a cause,’ ” he said. “And today I think differently. To die? For what? For these people who can’t agree? That’s what this generation fears. It’s lost, and its sacrifices are meaningless. Is the Palestinian dream dying? In these circumstances, yes.”

Actually this is a very hopeful sign. Wars end when one side loses all hope.

One must also look carefully at what the Palestinian hope is. The destruction of Israel and the expulsion of all Jews from "Moslem" lands. The end of that hope could be the beginning of reality.

A Palestinian father talks about his children's future.

For the Id al-Fitr festival, the boys asked for toy Kalashnikovs and Uzis, and they know all about the crude rockets, the Qassams, that militants fire into southern Israel. “They classify the weapons, they want a particular gun,” Mrs. Assar said. “And when you think of the violence, and what future will we have here? It will be a very violent future.”

Mr. Assar broke in. “The world is moving ahead, and we’re moving backward,” he said. “We’re back to 1948.”

What was 1948? The first Arab war to exterminate the Jews or drive them from Israel. It was a failure for the Arabs.

They commemorate their defeat with Al-nakba Day. Nakba means “catastrophe” or “disaster.” So far Palestinian Arabs have one disaster after another to celebrate. Every few years they come up with a reason for a new holiday.

What happens when a culture is just going through the motions and no longer believes in its own myths? It collapses. The fall of the USSR is a prime example that is less than 20 years old.

In another part of the refugee camp, four black-clad fighters gathered in self-conscious secrecy, members of the Abu Rish brigades, a militant Gazan offshoot of Fatah that opposed the Oslo accords with Israel and has moved closer to Hamas.

Raed, 30, was arrested in the first intifada, when he was 16. He felt a hero at the time, but the political result, the 1993 Oslo accords, “were useless and benefited Israel,” he said. “No one can resist with stones or build a nation without violence.”

Like his comrades, he says he is fighting for the future of his own children, but he has small hopes for them, and large fears. “Hamas and Fatah are so divided, the goal of Palestine disappears,” he said. “I talk about willing my children to be martyrs for Allah, but I honestly wish for them to be safe and healthy, that’s all.”

There is bravado there, but also frustration. None of the fighters, who agreed to talk if their last names were not published, believes a Palestinian state will be established; none can imagine living next to Israel. All of them want to leave and start again, somewhere.

What do you do when your dreams of conquest turn into a nightmare of defeat? If you can, you go some place else to start over.

Where that some where might be is not yet determined. Their Arab brothers certainly don't want them. With their propensity for violence they will not be welcomed in any civilized place. Even conquest only gets you so far when you run out of victims. Then you must return to productive pursuits and produce real fruits. Martyrdom produces no fruit.

Gaza is a poor, chaotic place of 1.5 million people, 70 percent of them refugees or their descendants. Younger, more conservative and more religious than the West Bank, Gaza is the heartland of Hamas, and the people of Gaza are even more constrained by Israeli and Egyptian security restrictions on their travel. There are fewer jobs than in the West Bank, and even more weapons.

With the economy of Gaza shutting down, much of the work available for young people is either in the swollen and disorganized security forces or in the armed militias or gangs, many of them built on clan loyalties, and some of which engage more in racketeering than in fighting. Hamas and Islamic Jihad, with considerable financial help from Iran and Syria, are known at least to pay their people, even if Hamas cannot pay full salaries to all Palestinian Authority employees.

Hassan, 21, ran out of money before finishing university, but cannot imagine what he would do in Gaza with a degree. “I look at the graduates here, and their diplomas are useless,” he said. “That’s why I’m in the resistance.”

Before the start of Intifada II the Palestinian and Israeli economies were integrating. Unemployment among Palestinian Arabs has declined from about 35% to about 15% over a four year period. That ended in 2000 with the start of the latest war between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs.

One of Arafat's henchmen gave the reason for the start of the latest war - well fed people do not wish to fight. So it was Arafat's policy to start wars when the people stared progressing. Economic independence makes rule difficult. People start gaining a measure of independence. Alternate power centers are created. What dictator wants that going on in his back yard?

Khader Fayyad, 46, lives in Beit Hanun and works as an ambulance driver for the Palestinian Red Crescent, dispatched to every horror.

“I call these kids the destroyed generation,” Mr. Fayyad said. “Nobody pays attention to this generation, except to recruit them, and it’s very dangerous.”

He is proud of 16-year-old Ayman, the brightest of his sons. But he feels unable to provide him a valuable future.

Mr. Fayyad’s own father died when he was 17. But it was a different time, he said — the peace talks, the Oslo accords, the return of responsibility to Palestinians over their lives, Camp David. “We were exposed to the world, to politics, and yes, to Israelis,” he said.

“Resistance and politics must go together,” he said. “Yasir Arafat knew how to use one for the other. Now, there is no politics, no talks, so the sacrifices of the youth are wasted and empty.”

Ayman, however, like most members of his generation, cannot imagine living in peace next to an Israel that has ripped up his town, or becoming friends with an Israeli who has rolled over his schoolyard in a tank.

Which only indicates that their defeat is not yet sufficiently complete. The Germans and Japanese found a way to work with their enemies. To get to that point however they needed to be utterly crushed and face starvation.

Short of that they will have to live with hopelessness for probably another decade before the reality of the situation crushes them utterly.

Mr. Hussein says he has never spoken to an ordinary Israeli. “The only Israelis I see here are either settlers or soldiers,” he said. “They all have guns.”

He hates waiting on people and washing dishes, and says he is still looking for a decent job. But he is also looking to get out — to the United States, if possible, where his sister lives, but “almost any place,” he said, “where I can work and live a normal life.”

He is a Palestinian patriot, he insists. “But there’s no hope here,” he said. “You see the situation. It’s useless to think it will improve. You see it; it just gets worse.”

Just how bad can it get? Very bad even for those trying to leave.

Even the young fighters of the Abu Rish brigade have tried to leave. Muhammad and Saado, both 27, sold their weapons, took bank loans and paid $2,000 for visas and tickets from Cairo to Beijing on Austrian Airlines. They made it out of Gaza through the Rafah crossing with Egypt, but the Egyptians put them on a bus, locked the door and drove straight to the airport. For the four days before their departure, they said, the Egyptians then locked them into a crammed airport waiting room.

“A dog wouldn’t use the toilet,” Muhammad said. “They charged us 150 Egyptian pounds a day ($26.30) to use a seat, even the little kids. One Egyptian said, ‘Even a dead body has to pay.’ ” They bribed guards to bring them food and water.

The day of their flight, a Friday, they were brought to the departure hall. But an airlines security guard examined their documents and turned them away. Presumably, the visas were fake. “He looked at us as if we were evil,” Saado said. “There was no respect for us. I hate the Israelis, but I hate the Egyptians more.”

They were returned to the fetid waiting room, and a day later, when there was a busload, they were shipped back, first to El Arish. There they waited for days in an even more disgusting detention area, they said, until the Rafah crossing opened.

“When we finally got back to Gaza, I kissed the soil,” Muhammad said, laughing at his humiliation. “We said, ‘Gaza is paradise!’ ”

In time it is possible the Palestinian Arabs will figure out who their real enemies are. Their leaders and their Arab "brothers" who use them as cannon fodder.

Some want to leave at any cost.

What about those who would accuse you of giving up your rights in your land?

Mr. Hussein turned away. “I don’t care,” he finally said. “I want to live happily.”

First the myth dies. Then the struggle to uphold it even with lip service ends. Once that is over, and it could take a decade or more, new beginnings are possible. Provided they change their operating myth. Building must replace fighting as the motivating ideal. It is very difficult. Not impossible.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Hamas Is Revolting

The Mecca Accords are causing dissention in the ranks of Hamas.

"Hamas is facing a serious split," the sources said. "Opposition in Hamas to the Mecca agreement is growing as some of the movement's senior officials are talking about a possible revolt."

The "rejectionist" camp in Hamas, led by Interior Minister Said Siam and Foreign Affairs Minister Mahmoud a-Zahar, is opposed to the Mecca agreement under the pretext that Hamas made too many concessions to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction.

Both Siam and Zahar have privately criticized Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and Syria-based Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal for signing the agreement, a top Hamas official in Gaza City told The Jerusalem Post.

He said the two, along with a number of senior Hamas figures in the Gaza Strip, have refused to participate in coalition talks with Fatah representatives over the past few weeks. The two are expected to lose their jobs in the new Hamas-led coalition.

"Siam and Zahar are unhappy with the agreement not only because they won't serve in the unity government, but because they believe that Hamas has made far-reaching political concessions," the official said. "They are convinced that Hamas is gradually abandoning its ideology as Fatah did when it signed the Oslo Accords with Israel more than a decade ago."

What is the ideological difference between Hamas and Fatah (Conquest)? There is only one major difference. The time table for the destruction of Israel. Hamas says right now. Fatah says it may take longer.

I guess the Palestinian National unity government may be delayed a little longer.

Hamas Surrenders

At least that is what al-Zawahri says.

Al-Qaida's number two leader criticized Hamas for agreeing to form a national unity government according to an audio recording broadcast Sunday by Al-Jazeera satellite channel.

"Hamas has fallen in the swamp of surrender," Ayman al-Zawahri said, according to the excerpts broadcast by the Qatari-based channel.

Palestinians Agree - No Unity Government

The Palestinians so far agree that they cannot agree.

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh failed to make progress on talks toward forming a unity government, an official said early Monday.

Government spokesman Ghazi Hamad said they hoped to present a government by the end of the period allotted to Haniyeh, which expires in two weeks.

Earlier, officials expressed hopes that the Cabinet could be named his week. The leaders met for three hours in Gaza, leaving just after midnight without talking to reporters. Abbas had arrived in the Strip for what his aides described as "decisive" talks with Haniyeh to patch up differences over the composition and political platform of the proposed government.

Before the two rival faction leaders met, a war of words erupted between Fatah and Hamas, with each side accusing the other of seeking to derail the Mecca agreement.

Translation: Hamas feels it is strong enough so that it no longer has to lie to the West the way Arafat did. Hamas says no to the renunciation of violence, no to the the recognition of Israel, and no to the adherence to past peace agreements. Pretty much a thumb in the eye to Abbas who prefers to say one thing to the West and another to the Arab Palestinians. He knows the money flows better when he plays that game.

Condi Gets Angry With Abbas

Front Page Magazine reports that America's Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice read the riot act to Palestinian Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

During Condoleezza Rice’s three-hour meeting with Mahmoud Abbas last week in Ramallah, she reportedly “employed a threatening tone.” A Palestinian Authority official said that “We’ve never seen her in such a bad mood.”

Later at a press conference after meeting in a Jerusalem hotel with Abbas and Ehud Olmert, she “briskly walked into . . . the hotel’s main ballroom, gave a vacuous 90-second declaration and unceremoniously left, taking no questions.”

Rice was angry with Abbas for having earlier signed an agreement in Mecca that officially makes his Fatah movement a junior partner of Hamas. Abbas is said to have protested that “the only two options facing me were civil war or national unity, and I chose the second.” Rice apparently didn’t buy it.

I think he is right on that one. Since the agreement the Palestinian Civil War has damped down considerably. I believe in the last couple of weeks there have only been 5 deaths and they were attributed to family feuds probably triggered by earlier civil war violence.

Rice’s anger suggests that she has sincerely believed that Abbas is a constructive force who is worth American coddling and encouragement—even to the extent of funding, training, and equipping his militia. The anger, in other words, seems to be a case of empiricism catching up with delusion and denial. It must especially sting that it was the Saudis—whom Rice, the State Department, and the U.S. generally are always trying to impress by demonstrating their tenderness toward the Palestinians—who pressured Abbas into formally capitulating to Hamas and further enshrining the latter as the Palestinian standard-bearer.

It’s hard, after all, to see why Rice—ostensibly a conservative and not a fluttery-hearted liberal—got so disappointed in her Palestinian charge. There has always been much information available showing his lack of moderacy and total lack of interest in complying with the road map.

I never understood why Arafat got so much adulation (until Bush) from American Presidents. That guy promised peace in English and War in Arabic. A first rate double dealer. He got a Nobel Peace Prize too. I guess the Nobel Committee does't read Arabic. Lucky for Arafat. Not so lucky for the Israelis.

The Jerusalem Post reports on Condi's tough talk.

Even the most veteran officials in the Mukata "presidential" compound in Ramallah cannot recall such a tense meeting between a Palestinian leader and a senior US official as this week's encounter between PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

As Rice was walking out of the three-hour meeting, the officials rushed to phone Palestinian reporters to inform them that the talks were "very hard," and that the secretary of state had actually "rebuked" Abbas for signing the power-sharing Mecca agreement with Hamas earlier this month.

Reflecting the gloomy mood in Abbas's office, a top PA official said he did not rule out the possibility that Abbas would eventually end up being isolated in the Mukata like his predecessor, Yasser Arafat. "Rice employed a threatening tone during the talks with President Abbas," the official said. "We've never seen her in such a bad mood. She just doesn't understand that the president had no choice but to reach a deal with Hamas."

The official quoted Abbas as telling his aides after the Ramallah meeting that, by rejecting the Mecca deal, the US was "pushing the Palestinian people toward civil war."

America these days is adamant about not providing direct aid to the Palestinian governent. What money is given only goes to food and medical aid provided by NGOs or as we used to call them, charitable organizations.

Here is a report on the post summit press conference:

As reporters and advisers to the three leaders waited in the cavernous ballroom floor of the hotel, there was no overblown, Oslo-like sense of "feeling the flutter of history's wings." There was no expectation, no sense of moment, no anticipation of great diplomatic drama.

As a result, nobody was really disappointed that following nearly two-and-a-half hours of meetings, Rice briskly walked into a flagless, partitioned section of the hotel's main ballroom, gave a vacuous 90-second declaration and unceremoniously left, taking no questions. No one had expected anything more.

Which doesn't mean the summit was a complete flop. What it means is that a cold bucket of realism seems to have been tossed onto the Israeli-Palestinian diplomatic process. What it means is that there is a growing realization that not every impasse can be broken in disengagement-like fell swoops, not all deadlocks solved by wholesale Israeli confidence-building gestures.

What they mean is that Israeli capitulations will no longer be required to advance the "peace process". Which is a start towards realism.

Carl in Jerusalem has some thoughts.

H/T Israpundit